Irish pairs have reached the finals of both the open and women's pairs events at the European bridge championships in Tenerife. Yesterday Tom Hanlon and Hugh McGann qualified comfortably 16th out of the 104 competing pairs in the semi-final. John Carroll and Tommy Garvey were in contention to the end but just missed the cut in 44th place.
Jim Sexton and Terry Walsh, the third Irish pair to reach the semi-final, were never in contention and finished well down the field in 76th place. The leading 40 pairs advanced to the final to be joined by six from the repechage as well as the six pairs who had taken part in the team final.
In the women's semi-final, the Pender sisters from Dublin, Gilda and Noreen, played the best bridge of their careers to get through the hard way, from the difficult repechage. With places in the final for the first six only, the Penders stayed near the top throughout, finally taking 4th place to join an elite band of Irish women pairs to have reached a European final. The other Irish competitors - Patsy Meehan and Rose O'Farrell, Ann Fitzgerald and Lucy Phelan, Joan Kenny and Emer Joyce - all finished with under-average scores.
Michael MacDonagh and Seán O'Lubaigh were posted as having qualified for the seniors final from their repechage but were disappointed when later adjustments to the score left them just short.
The finals are organised on barometer scoring - that is, every table plays the same set of deals simultaneously so that the true position of every pair is known immediately the round ends. After the first of four sessions in the open final, Hanlon and McGann occupied 11th place behind leaders Bizon and Kwiecien (Poland).
In the women's final, the Penders continue their fine play to lie eighth after the first set behind Arrigini and Olivieri (Italy). Adad and Salliere (France) led the seniors championship. At time of writing, Hanlon and McGann had made a spectacular move up to fourth place in the open as the second session got under way.
Hanlon from Rochfortbridge, Co Westmeath, and McGann, from Fermoy, have been through numerous world and European championships. They have the experience and the ability to take a medal for Ireland. But there is still a lot of bridge to be played here in Tenerife.
In the second set of the women's event, the Penders continued their excellent performance and were holding eighth place.
The championships end today.